What's Your Number? film review

WITH echoes of this summer’s Bridesmaids in its sexual frankness and hapless heroine, What’s Your Number? is a better-than-expected romantic comedy with two appealing leads, if not nearly as funny or truthful as that surprise smash.

The likeable Anna Faris (The House Bunny) plays Ally, a thirtysomething with a string of failed relationships and a dud career in marketing.

After being dumped and fired on the same day, she reads a magazine article suggesting women with 21 or more lovers never marries and is filled her with the fear of God. Her total number of lovers to date: 20.

Enlisting the help of her layabout, womanising neighbour Colin (Captain America’s chris Evans) she starts tracking down her ex’s, desperate to rekindle an old flame and thus avoid the ill-fated number.

With her sister’s wedding looming can she find a respectable beau to bring along or might she just take a shine to the roguish Colin?

Unlike Bridesmaids it suffers from the contrivances and predictability of most romantic comedies but the leads have an infectious chemistry and Ally is a refreshingly modern heroine with a nice screwball touch.

The funniest scenes are those of Ally and her ex-boyfriends, including one played by Martin Freeman, but there aren’t enough laughs and it feels overlong.